The repetition of the same sound, usually of a consonant, at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other or at short intervals.
Example: The repetition of "f" and "g" in fields ever fresh, groves ever green.
Alliteration is used to draw attention to, or to highlight, an idea or event; often used in conjuction with onomatopoeia.
'Is there anybody there?' said the Traveler, Knocking on the moonlit door; And his horse in the silence champed
the grasses of the forest's ferny floor;And a bird flew up out of the turret,Above the traverler's head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
''is there anybody there?''he said.
but no one descended to the Traverler;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked on to his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
but only a host of phantom listeners
that dwelt inthe quiet of the moonlight
to that voice from the world of men:
stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
that goes down to the empty hall,
hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
by the lonely traverler's call.
and he felt in his heart their strangeness,
their stillness his cry,
while his horse moved, cropping the dark turf
''neath the starred and leafy sky;
for he suddenly smote on the door,even louder,
and lifted his head:"tell them i came ,and no one answered,
that I kept my word,"he said.
never the least stir made the listeners,
though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
from the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup.
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly bakwrd,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.
Definition:
The repetition of the same sound, usually of a consonant, at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other or at short intervals.
Example: The repetition of "f" and "g" in fields ever fresh, groves ever green.
Alliteration is used to draw attention to, or to highlight, an idea or event; often used in conjuction with onomatopoeia.
Example Poem:
"Listeners"'Is there anybody there?' said the Traveler, Knocking on the moonlit door; And his horse in the silence champed
the grasses of the forest's ferny floor;And a bird flew up out of the turret,Above the traverler's head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
''is there anybody there?''he said.
but no one descended to the Traverler;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked on to his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
but only a host of phantom listeners
that dwelt inthe quiet of the moonlight
to that voice from the world of men:
stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
that goes down to the empty hall,
hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
by the lonely traverler's call.
and he felt in his heart their strangeness,
their stillness his cry,
while his horse moved, cropping the dark turf
''neath the starred and leafy sky;
for he suddenly smote on the door,even louder,
and lifted his head:"tell them i came ,and no one answered,
that I kept my word,"he said.
never the least stir made the listeners,
though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
from the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup.
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly bakwrd,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.
How Alliteration Is Used: